- Alachua County BOCC passed a resolution expressing concerns about immigration enforcement's community impacts while complying with Florida law.
- The resolution warns that discriminatory law enforcement can harm public trust and community stability but avoids naming ICE specifically.
- Officials acknowledged potential federal funding risks, like HUD grants, but deemed the resolution's community support worth the risk.
The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) balanced community outcry and values with political consequences at its regular Tuesday morning meeting before voting unanimously to approve a resolution that expressed concerns regarding the community impacts of immigration-related enforcement activities.
The commission, its attorney and the resolution all clearly stated that Alachua County wants to abide by Florida law and is not trying to set up a sanctuary city. Instead, the resolution addresses support for local law enforcement duties and expresses its expectation that those duties happen in a nondiscriminatory and nondestructive manner.
The resolution said that type of law enforcement, especially based on profiling, can “undermine public confidence, deter cooperation with local government and law enforcement, and disrupt community stability.” The resolution fails to mention U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by name but largely focuses on immigration enforcement.
Despite the disclaimers, the county’s action could still have consequences, with officials mentioning funding impacts from federal grants because of the resolution (attached at the end of the story).
Commissioner Anna Prizzia said federal funding loss for the sheriff’s office or other potential cuts are speculative. She said the resolution only has a small risk of incurring blowback and added that the risk is worth taking as elected officials following through for their community.
“I think that our attorneys have done a really good job of working on a resolution that walks the letter of the law and makes sure that we’re doing what we’re required to do, and at the same time, does what our residents are asking of us, which is our job as elected officials, to make a statement standing in solidarity with a community that’s facing a lot of fear . . ..” Prizzia said.
Alachua County Attorney Sylvia Torres highlighted that the resolution is not a sanctuary city policy. But she said the state could take issue. The most likely form would be a notice from the attorney general.
“There’s a history of the attorney general sending out letters that say that what you’ve done is not within your authority or that it is malfeasance or misfeasance in office,” Torres said.
For over a year, community members have staged protests in Alachua County and Gainesville concerning ICE practices and potential detention facilities.
Public commenters and local groups (Rural Women’s Health Project and Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion Initiative) started asking local commissions to pass resolutions opposing enforcement practices—modeled from an Orange County resolution from March 2026.
The county tasked its staff to review the resolution sent to it and delay any implementation before a certain date per Sheriff Chad Scott’s request. Jacob Torner, vice president with the Continuum of Care that organizes Alachua County’s homelessness response, emailed the county in July and said the resolution could put U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding in jeopardy.
“If the County adopts a resolution consistent with what has been requested at recent public meetings regarding generally lawful immigration enforcement, I have concerns that HUD and the federal government could view Alachua County less favorably in the award of critical grants upon which our community relies,” Torner wrote.
At the meeting, community members spoke in support of the resolution as commissioners debated whether or not to move forward.
Ethan Maia de Needell, immigrant programs manager for the Rural Women’s Health Project, said the resolution sprang from rumors of an ICE detention facility in Alachua County and a Gainesville ICE office. He said the resolution worked its way slowly while members of the community heard silence about how to deal with the new reality of law enforcement practices.
“While the resolution itself does not have the power to change the arrest practices or the federal government’s immigration enforcement agenda, we as the community expect our leaders to lead by example and draw a clear line in the sand as to what is and is not acceptable,” Maia de Needell said.
Chair Ken Cornell said one can support immigrants, want the highest professionalism in law enforcement and still not be in favor of the resolution.
“I think you can have the opinion of supporting immigrants and still believe that this resolution actually may be the wrong thing,” Cornell said. “So you can hold those opinions, and I’ve heard from a number of folks that also support immigrants that have asked us not to do this.”
Cornell said the resolution is a statement of Alachua County’s character as a community and cannot be a tool to change federal immigration law. He said the county also doesn’t need a resolution for its commissioners to verbally support immigrants day after day.
But he supported the resolution, saying he hadn’t planned to originally.
Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler questioned if this type of resolution belonged on the county level.
“We really can’t impact what’s being dictated to us from the state,” she said. “Is it our responsibility, or is it our state reps and our federal reps?”
“It’s all the above. It’s all the above,” Prizzia responded.
Prizzia made the motion to pass the resolution but asked for a few changes.
First, she asked that language around arrest practices change from “continue in such a way” to “occur in such a way.” Second, she asked that the board remove “agency policy” from section 5.1 in order to ask for masks to not be worn except when law allows it.
Commissioner Chuck Chestnut seconded the motion for discussion, and the resolution ended up passing unanimously, with Wheeler agreeing to give a united front.
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Why would the Alachua County Commissioners knowingly pass a resolution that could put millions of dollars in federal funding at risk?
County officials themselves acknowledged the potential consequences including the possibility of losing critical HUD funding yet they still decided the resolution was worth the risk.
That is not their money. It is our tax dollars, our programs, and our community’s funding.
If even a single dollar of essential funding is lost because commissioners chose to make a political statement, who is going to explain that cost to the taxpayers?
We deserve commissioners who protect Alachua County’s financial stability not gamble with it.
Think about your opening sentence. You are acknowledging that Americans, speaking publicly in a civil and principled manner are likely to be punished by the state and federal governments. Is this your idea of freedom? How far we have fallen. So sad.
We spend money on violating federal law while paying 4 mkillion dollars for homeless services yet our rOADS HAVE POTHOLES THE SIZE OF POOLS
There are about 5,200 total lane miles of road in Alachua County. Of that total, only about 700 are County roads. The remainder are state or local municipal roads and are therefore the responsibility of either the FDOT or the local governments. So chances are good that the potholes you encounter are not on county roads. Even if there is national or state retribution (“weaponization”?) for the BOCC’s brave stance, it may have little impact on the totality of area road conditions.
The knee-deep potholes on County Road 234 one-quarter mile west of 441 are not my imagination. These potholes are a threat to public safety. The BOCC should see about fixing them.
I so appreciate the concern for all our citizens in light of the current political barbarism.
Great to hear that all the potholes have been fixed.
Potholes on State roads are the responsibility of the state; County, the county, etc.. At any rate that has nothing to do with this discussion at hand. I applaud the commission to take this stance against the State and Federal authoritarianism acting like the Gestapo of Nazi Germany.
The state and federal authorities are not “acting like” the Gestapo. My mother was born in Germany, and she knew something about the Geheimstaatspoliziei (secret police). In contrast, our law enforcement is not “secret.” Our police work in the open, enforcing laws at the city, county, state, and federal level. The issue seems to be rabble-rousing, doxing, and impeding the work of law enforcement. Everyone should be concerned about illegal immigration, because it is against the law, and it threatens to destroy our country.
And who determines when masks should be worn? Really
Right. Six years ago during Covid, everyone was supposed to wear masks, as it kept us safe. Now, the county commission proclaims that mask wearing by law enforcement is dangerous. What about the demonstrators we see on TV who are wearing masks? Aren’t they part of the problem?
I think immigrants who are here illegally should be deported. They are here in violation of the laws of our country. I will not hire companies who employ illegal immigrants. If it’s common knowledge where these people are living, working and hanging out then how is it “profiling” to arrest them? We need to support our laws and those people who uphold our laws instead of sitting around figuring out how to thwart them but still get federal monies. By the way, my grandparents were immigrants here legally. Supporting lawbreakers is an insult to those abiding by our laws.
I don’t think most Americans want illegal immigrants, however up until this administration they were removed properly and within the law, through a process. Now we have unqualified, barely trained swat team wannabees running around the country with masks and guns, grabbing anyone who isn’t white. ICE has violated the legal rights of citizens repeatedly and you think that is ok?
What punishment would you recommend for those who employ illegal immigrants? Are those employers “supporting our laws”? Aren’t they profiting off of criminal activity? But we seem to be ok with that. Are those true Americans clamoring for those jobs and wages? Have we truly become such an incompetent nation that we couldn’t devise a fair and rational guest worker program in just a few months? A system that allows humane and equitable immigration? And that we couldn’t accomplish these at a tenth of what all of this ICE crap is costing us? The problem is the WE DONT WANT TO SOLVE IT. We’ve come to enjoy the cruelty and kindness takes too much work.
except that they are murdering Americans in the street and kidnapping folks that are LEGALLY entering the country and on the road to citizenship.
So a small gang of whiners show up and you make a big deal about it. You have NO say in the matter. Why waste time and money on this made up issue?
Because our officials don’t care about citizen benefit issues, the only care about far left ideology and using their elected positions to support their ideology,
That is just what North Florida needs a set of left wing activists spewing forth more non sense. Well, it is Alachua county after all, so I would think it’s par for the course. When are we going to understand that illegal immigration is a drag on our government resources. It’s time to stop, call them what they are they are not migrants or immigrant, they are illegal aliens. The deportations need to continue, and be ramped up
Child labor and slavery also helped prop up the economy, but both were wrong. The same thing is true with illegal immigration. Using illegal immigration to “prop up the economy” is morally and legally wrong. The fact is that illegal immigration puts a great strain on national resources, on the schools, healthcare system, law enforcement, and even medicare. Illegal immigrants should have never been allowed into the country. We need legal immigration and that’s how we will get our fruits and vegetables, thank you very much.
Correct
Good. ICE’s actions are unconstitutional and therefore illegal.
Sweet D…no one individual, who is not a legal scholar, can decree any action, anywhere to be unconstitutional, so you are wrong. But guess what? You have every right to be utterly wrong.
In your case, you don’t like what ICE is doing, so you and a bunch of other boorish, whiney, socialists simply decree the highly legal and very effective ICE operations “unconstitutional”. *YAWN* You can only dream of having that much power.
Go sit down.